Andrew Geller Passes Away, Ivanka Trump Accused of Theft, and More…

We hope you had a nice long holiday weekend, but now it seems time to get back to normal (or at least a slower version of normal until things really get back to cooking next week). To help you adjust, here’s some miscellany to catch you back up on what’s been going on of late:

Ivanka Trump was likely saved some negative buzz by having a controversy pop up right before the weekend. Designer Derek Lam has accused Trump of stealing the design for one of his wedge shoes for her own line of wedges, issuing a cease-and-desist in the process. The designer says it’s a flat out copy, but Trump has fired back, arguing that the style has been used across brands for years and isn’t Lam’s sole (puns!) creation. “There is nothing iconic about the appearance of the Lam sandal,” a Trump spokesperson said in a statement. Now it’s time for the lawyers to duke it out.

On a sad note, the famous architect who helped popularize modernism and prefabricated housing, Andrew Geller, passed away on Christmas Day, reportedly of kidney failure. He was 87. The NY Times obituary is a good summary of Mr. Geller’s storied career, but if you have the time, we highly recommend reading Alastair Gordon‘s touching piece about the life and work of his close friend.

The battle between Federal Emergency Management Agency and the University of Iowa over buildings that were destroyed during a 2008 flood (including a depressingly now-unusable Steven Holl structure), continues unabated. The university wants to use FEMA’s rebuilding funds to move their art museum to higher ground, both to keep the art safe and to allow them to get said art insured, whereas FEMA only wants to provide funding to rehab the damaged museum (which would render insurance on the art collection impossible). In this latest round, the university has provided FEMA with more information and now is preparing itself for another long wait to hear back.

Finally, Frank Lloyd Wright‘s Fallingwater has now entered the iPad age, with the launch of its own app, offering visitors or architecture fans from afar, to tour the house and learn all its many facts and figures. Here’s the promo video:

Subscribe to Adweek

Featured Courses

Facebook MarketingBuild a fan base and grow your business on FacebookLearn more >Google AnalyticsMaster Google Analytics to build traffic and increase revenue for your brandLearn more >Content ManagementCreate, edit, and publish content using CMS platformsLearn more >Public Relations: Build Your PortfolioMaster the key documents you need to succeed in PRLearn more >See more Courses >